Thomas Hobbes Flashcards
Background info
Born in Wiltshire in 1588.
Born during the Spanish Armada, and later stated that ‘my
mother gave birth to twins: myself and fear’.
His father was a vicar.
Hobbes studied in Magdalen Hall (predecessor to Oxford).
He witnessed the harsh brutality of the English Civil War and this influenced much of his thinking.
Key work
Leviathan (1651).
Argues that peace and social cohesion are best achieved under the stewardship of a strong and powerful sovereign that is responsible for protection.
Stated that the natural state of fear must be abandoned and people should adopt the concept of a social contract.
Believed that only a monarchy could provide the authority and ability to offer safety to its citizens.
Hobbes believed the monster of Leviathan in the book of Job represented the state.
Human Nature
Hobbes had a pessimistic view of human nature.
Humans were naturally selfish and driven by self interest.
People will enter into competition due to the scarcity of resources; namely food, property and wealth.
Thus, life was mostly full of fear, anger and violence.
Hobbes defined the state of nature as follows: ‘the life of man is
solitary, poor, nasty, brutish and short’.
Role of government and state
Stated that if people wanted peace and security there needed to be a strong and powerful state.
The only true form of government was an absolute monarchy with the authoritarian and supreme powers to protect its citizens.
Humans were rational beings and could either live in the state of nature without government or with a strong and powerful government.
The purpose of the social contract was that citizens offered up their freedom in exchange for absolute protection from the state,
Society and identity
Hobbes believed that the social contract was the most important thing within society.
The civil laws that people have become accustomed to arise from the state of nature due to the lack of a strong government.
Stated that religious identity should mirror that of the state, and the sovereign has supreme authority, rather than the church.
Loyalty to the reigning monarch above all else.
Economy and Globalisation
Stated that there were no natural rights prior to the state.
Therefore, the sovereign had limitless power to take property and
other material wealth from its citizens.
Any effort by the state to allow for property rights would result in a resumption of the state of nature.
He did however, advance the value of labour as a commodity, describing it as a ‘commodity exchangeable for benefit’.
